NJPW Thread

[famicommander]

Just watched the Iizuka retirement show and can confirm that Kevin Kelly did not, in fact, learn how to pronounce the man's name for his own retirement show.

[cgstong]

What have been some of your best matches from BOSJ lately?

[roacheyyy]

Shingo vs SHO was unreal

[famicommander]

I would also like a list of highlights from BOSJ. I started out trying to watch every match but so far I've only made it through May 19. I ain't got forever and a day to watch all this.

[ICHIFUJI]

Was IWGP US title Lifeblood vs. AEW?

[Wilson]

What have been some of your best matches from BOSJ lately?

I am quite late to this but if anyone wants to do a backwatch: Shingo vs Sho, Ospreay vs Rocky, Ospreay vs Phantasmo Rocky vs Phantasmo, and Shingo vs Ospreay were my favorites from this year. Some other good ones were Shingo vs Marty, Rocky vs Narita, Dragon Lee vs Titan, Sho vs Kanemaru, Ospreay vs Bandido, Taguchi vs Rocky, and Rocky vs Yoh. (Also I watched a good chunk of the tournament, but not all of it.)

On the BOSJ finals night, New Japan can really put on a spectacular show almost out of nowhere. The top three matches were just phenomenal for what they were trying to accomplish. I think it's become very clear how much Moxley wants his wrestling career to take off. I never been as on board with him in the past ten years as I am now.

Was IWGP US title Lifeblood vs. AEW?

It's kind of a bummer that we only saw scants of Juice being a main event player while holding the belt in ROH. No sinews between the NJPW/AEW appear to be fully formed, but the agreements Jericho and Moxley have set up make them seem like invaders, and that serves them both companies well in building momentum.

[roacheyyy]

Top 20 matches of G1 2019 I'm looking forward to
KENTA vs Kota Ibushi Night 1
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada Night 1
Jeff Cobb vs Tomohiro Ishii Night 2
Kazuchika Okada vs Zack Sabre Jr Night 3
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs KENTA Night 3
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Zack Sabre Jr Night 5
Kota Ibushi vs Will Ospreay Night 5
Hirooki Goto vs Tetsuya Naito Night 6
Kazuchika Okada vs Will Ospreay Night 7
Tetsuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii Night 8
Kazuchika Okada vs KENTA Night 9
Hirooki Goto vs Tomohiro Ishii Night 12
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kota Ibushi Night 13
Shingo Takagi vs Tetsuya Naito Night 14
KENTA vs Will Ospreay Night 15
Kota Ibushi vs Zack Sabre Jr Night 15
Jeff Cobb vs Tetsuya Naito Night 16
Shingo Takagi vs Tomohiro Ishii Night 16
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Will Ospreay Night 17
Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi Night 17

[cgstong]

G1 29 Block A

* Lance Archer: (1-0), 2 pts.
* Bad Luck Fale: (1-0), 2 pts.
* SANADA: (1-0), 2 pts.
* KENTA: (1-0), 2 pts.
* Kazuchika Okada: (1-0), 2 pts.
* Zack Sabre Jr: (0-1), 0 pts.
* Hiroshi Tanahashi: (0-1), 0 pts.
* Kota Ibushi: (0-1), 0 pts.
* EVIL: (0-1), 0 pts.
* Will Ospreay: (0-1), 0 pts.

G1 29 Block B

* Tetsuya Naito: (-), pts.
* Shingo Takagi: (-), pts.
* Tomohiro Ishii: (-), pts.
* Juice Robinson: (-), pts.
* Toru Yano: (-), pts.
* Hirooki Goto: (-), pts.
* Jay White: (-), pts.
* Jeff Cobb: (-), pts.
* Taichi: (-), pts.
* Jon Moxley: (-), pts.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

Moxley vs. Ishii might be my favorite match of the G1 thus far.

[Wilson]

Moxley vs. Ishii might be my favorite match of the G1 thus far.

Yeah, mine too. I didn't realize until they were in the ring at the same time how much each other's physical charisma would mirror each other, especially since they are such idiomatic wrestlers. Ishii is one of the few wrestlers of which I have no idea how his matches get put together--sometimes there are moves or counters that don't get the reaction they feel the reaction they should or lack a little mustard, but I would generally call his matches seamless in the moments that build on top of one another. I already knew Ishii was one of the best wrestlers in the world, and probably one of the best ever, but I'm now pretty sure Moxley is right up there with the best talent today.

My favorite matches so far (as of night 6):

Ishii vs. Moxley
Kenta vs. Tanahashi
Ishii vs. Cobb
Shingo vs. Taichi
Kenta vs. Archer
Ibushi vs. Ospreay
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Tanahashi

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

Moxley vs. Ishii might be my favorite match of the G1 thus far.

Yeah, mine too. I didn't realize until they were in the ring at the same time how much each other's physical charisma would mirror each other, especially since they are such idiomatic wrestlers. Ishii is one of the few wrestlers of which I have no idea how his matches get put together--sometimes there are moves or counters that don't get the reaction they feel the reaction they should or lack a little mustard, but I would generally call his matches seamless in the moments that build on top of one another. I already knew Ishii was one of the best wrestlers in the world, and probably one of the best ever, but I'm now pretty sure Moxley is right up there with the best talent today.

My favorite matches so far (as of night 6):

Ishii vs. Moxley
Kenta vs. Tanahashi
Ishii vs. Cobb
Shingo vs. Taichi
Kenta vs. Archer
Ibushi vs. Ospreay
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Tanahashi

Very accurate assessment of an Ishii match. His match quality is so good with anyone they throw him in with. The Moxley match was off the charts. It had a big fight feel from the onset and totally delivered.

Okada vs. Ospreay was excellent and probably my favorite match they had yet.

Ibushi looked amazing considering how fucked his ankle looked not 4 days before.

Tanahashi has been a joy to watch. He had a nice match with Archer. Sold like crazy, but convincing win.

ZSJ had about as good of match as you can get out of Fale. I like his subplot for the tournament. His excitement over the countout win was amusing.

I can't believe we are only a 1/3 of the way through and the matches have really, really delivered. Okada vs. KENTA will be interesting.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

Watched Okada vs. Ospreay again. My new favorite match of the G1. If you haven't seen this, you are depriving yourself of a possible MOTY.

[cgstong]

Night 9 results:

NJPW G1 Climax 29 A Block

Kazuchika Okada def. Kenta

Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Sanada

Evil def. Zack Sabre Jr.

Will Ospreay def. Bad Luck Fale by DQ

Kota Ibushi def. Lance Archer

Non-Tournament Matches

Los Ingobernables (Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi) def. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino

Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) def. Chaos (Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi)

Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) def. Juice Robinson, Tomoaki Homna & Toa Henare

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Jeff Cobb, Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji

[Reaper G]

I mainly watch NJPW on AXS TV. It's nice to see whole shows dedicated to the G1, but next week will the the third week in a row of Block A. I'm guessing the Moxley/AEW issue is keeping Block B off.

[BurningHammer]

For me this has been one of the worst G1's in about ten years for consistency and general booking, no new stars have been made, there's been a tone of sloppy wrestling. Kenta looks a shadow of himself, thankfully Ospreay and Archer have been able to be highlights but so far everything has just felt so very run of the mill recently.

[Wilson]

Getting pretty deep into the New Japan bubble the past couple of years, I have definitely noticed people caring less about the company this year than last. With the Bullet Club civil war storyline last year, at least people were vocal about the changes and direction that were occurring. NJPW is probably the most firmly behind a company I've been since I started to be a part of the online wrestling community and to me it keeps setting new bars of quality, like the vaunted "golden years" of ROH. And like those golden years in ROH, 2005-2007, I think some people are exhausted by the product. I know fandoms never work according to records on paper, but so far the year in New Japan has been: pushing box office goalposts in all sorts of directions with the arenas planned for the next year, Tanahashi getting one more (and final?) at being the ace, Jay White wins his first title, Okada breaks out his slump, an Ospreay megapush, undefeated Shingo, an expanded New Japan Cup, the largest BOSJ finals in decades, a star-studded G1, and a simmering AEW/NJPW meta feud in Jericho and Moxley dates, a proto- cross-promotional feud in Omega/Tanahashi, and both hoovering attention away from ROH.

I think this G1 has been really great. Moxley and KENTA have been successful additions, with Moxley being an out-of-the-park hit. With the breaks in between shows, it's been a much easier duty to catch up as events air. To me, it has been preposterously good so far, especially knowing that the final nights tend to give some of the best matches and how many unsuspected directions we have been led through so far.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

Getting pretty deep into the New Japan bubble the past couple of years, I have definitely noticed people caring less about the company this year than last. With the Bullet Club civil war storyline last year, at least people were vocal about the changes and direction that were occurring. NJPW is probably the most firmly behind a company I've been since I started to be a part of the online wrestling community and to me it keeps setting new bars of quality, like the vaunted "golden years" of ROH. And like those golden years in ROH, 2005-2007, I think some people are exhausted by the product. I know fandoms never work according to records on paper, but so far the year in New Japan has been: pushing box office goalposts in all sorts of directions with the arenas planned for the next year, Tanahashi getting one more (and final?) at being the ace, Jay White wins his first title, Okada breaks out his slump, an Ospreay megapush, undefeated Shingo, an expanded New Japan Cup, the largest BOSJ finals in decades, a star-studded G1, and a simmering AEW/NJPW meta feud in Jericho and Moxley dates, a proto- cross-promotional feud in Omega/Tanahashi, and both hoovering attention away from ROH.

I think this G1 has been really great. Moxley and KENTA have been successful additions, with Moxley being an out-of-the-park hit. With the breaks in between shows, it's been a much easier duty to catch up as events air. To me, it has been preposterously good so far, especially knowing that the final nights tend to give some of the best matches and how many unsuspected directions we have been led through so far.

I agree with all of this. Lest we not forget the subplot that no one is thinking about... Naito going for the IWGP championship while holding the Intercontinental title.

Ishii has been really, really been delivering top notch matches whoever they throw at him.

Juice Robinson has looked really solid this year.

Okada vs. Ospreay was a fucking phenomenal 5 star match.

I think that thus far I am loving it this year.

[BurningHammer]

Getting pretty deep into the New Japan bubble the past couple of years, I have definitely noticed people caring less about the company this year than last. With the Bullet Club civil war storyline last year, at least people were vocal about the changes and direction that were occurring. NJPW is probably the most firmly behind a company I've been since I started to be a part of the online wrestling community and to me it keeps setting new bars of quality, like the vaunted "golden years" of ROH. And like those golden years in ROH, 2005-2007, I think some people are exhausted by the product. I know fandoms never work according to records on paper, but so far the year in New Japan has been: pushing box office goalposts in all sorts of directions with the arenas planned for the next year, Tanahashi getting one more (and final?) at being the ace, Jay White wins his first title, Okada breaks out his slump, an Ospreay megapush, undefeated Shingo, an expanded New Japan Cup, the largest BOSJ finals in decades, a star-studded G1, and a simmering AEW/NJPW meta feud in Jericho and Moxley dates, a proto- cross-promotional feud in Omega/Tanahashi, and both hoovering attention away from ROH.

I think this G1 has been really great. Moxley and KENTA have been successful additions, with Moxley being an out-of-the-park hit. With the breaks in between shows, it's been a much easier duty to catch up as events air. To me, it has been preposterously good so far, especially knowing that the final nights tend to give some of the best matches and how many unsuspected directions we have been led through so far.

Can I ask when you started watching New Japan Wilson? I want to say this current New Japan isn’t Bobb Sapp, Brock Lesner bad but you can tell a lot of these guys aren’t at the level they have been in the past, certain guys just aren’t clicking like Jay White even if he has improved a tone in the ring. I just look at it when you had previous G1’s that made Karl Anderson, Goto, Tanahashi, Nakamura, etc I am just not seeing that level. It feels like I’ve seen it a millions times before compared to the last few years especially.

[Lynx]

And like those golden years in ROH, 2005-2007, I think some people are exhausted by the product.

I think it is impossible to ignore Omega factor here. As far as Japanese markets go it looks like nobody even noticed that he is gone, but many western fans watched mostly due to Omega so I think that good chunk of those people either stopped watching entirely or watch way less now.

[Wilson]

Can I ask when you started watching New Japan Wilson? I want to say this current New Japan isn’t Bobb Sapp, Brock Lesner bad but you can tell a lot of these guys aren’t at the level they have been in the past, certain guys just aren’t clicking like Jay White even if he has improved a tone in the ring. I just look at it when you had previous G1’s that made Karl Anderson, Goto, Tanahashi, Nakamura, etc I am just not seeing that level. It feels like I’ve seen it a millions times before compared to the last few years especially.

I'd drop in ultra casually when they started doing their first Wrestle Kingdoms, cherry-pick matches when it was getting high praise at the kickstart of the Bushiroad era, then finally joined full-steam during the NJPW World launch. Not every G1 needs to cement a new top star. It was that risk-taking that ultimately backfired on babyface Naito. I know Moxley and KENTA don't seem like them building new stars, especially in a place like New Japan, but listen to the commentary when either of them are on screen. They are being reconfigured immensely and made their own in this promotion. I would agree that Jay White hasn't been clicking--some part of it his own and some part of it him being put in a role that plays against his strengths--but Juice is probably right now the closest he's been to Anderson. There are less concentrated pushes this year because there are so many stars, and so many that are below 40 this year. This is probably the youngest median age G1 in some time.

We're not seeing that many breakout stars this year, but the tournament has been made interesting by all the misdirections made in Moxley, KENTA, and Okada being booked so strong in the start and by imperiling Naito and Jay White.

And like those golden years in ROH, 2005-2007, I think some people are exhausted by the product.

I think it is impossible to ignore Omega factor here. As far as Japanese markets go it looks like nobody even noticed that he is gone, but many western fans watched mostly due to Omega so I think that good chunk of those people either stopped watching entirely or watch way less now.

I'm sort of talking about fans who stuck around to see New Japan beyond one or two anchoring stars like Kenny. I think it's something like fan burnout, which I get, there is a lot of product to watch in New Japan and the ROH community was exhausting to engage with back then (as a lot of forum-based communities were).